About

MISSION

Sharron Miller's Academy for the Performing Arts (SMAPA) provides comprehensive, inclusive developmental training in dance and related theater arts to students at every stage of life. Our holistic philosophy inspires students to believe they can achieve, nurturing the potential within each student by encouraging creativity, building skills, fostering self-discipline and bolstering self-esteem

SHARRON MILLER

Sharron Miller is Founder/Director of Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts (SMAPA), a 501c3 arts education organization whose mission is to provide comprehensive, inclusive developmental training in dance and related theater arts to children, teens, adults and seniors. She is a former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater soloist and veteran of seven Broadway shows. She has appeared on television, film, and hundreds of radio and television commercials. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Ms. Miller, who attended The Juilliard School, is committed to enriching the lives of young people through the arts. Her early training began with the late Fred Danieli, founder and director of the Garden State Ballet, who taught her the value of self-discipline, self-respect, and a commitment to excellence. Ms. Miller’s educational focus is to foster, nurture and encourage skill building, self-discipline, self-esteem and creativity in every student.

She served on the faculty of The Renaissance Middle School for 13 years where SMAPA provided the dance and drama program for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students during the school day. This program was developed with multi-year leadership support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, praised by the State of New Jersey as an “outstanding arts education model,” and eventually fully-funded by the Montclair Board of Education. Ms. Miller has also served on the faculty of Montclair Kimberley Academy, Far Brook School, and has been affiliated with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center as an arts-in-education consultant/partner.

At SMAPA, she not only continues to train hundreds of students yearly, but also continues to develop her arts enrichment programs and community outreach, which includes working in partnership with Quitman Street Community School in Newark providing a year long dance residency for K-5 students; providing a dance residency over the past three years to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th grade students in ten elementary school in East Orange; creating a 6-week full-day arts program, Prime Time Summer Arts, for children 6-14 in association with the Montclair Department of Recreation and Cultural Affairs; and adapting Prime Time Summer Arts to a nine week, half-day theme-based preschool summer arts program for children 3-5.

SMAPA receives generous financial support from foundations including the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Victoria Foundation, the Stone Foundation of New Jersey, the Turrell Fund, and the Montclair Foundation, among other contributors.

Ms. Miller resides in Montclair, New Jersey with her daughter, Jaimie.